Box Office Breakdown for Weekend of 2/4/24

Movies

What’s up, Geeks + Gamers? It’s ODIN!

The slow box office continued this weekend with a terrible opening for the new Matthew Vaughn film Argylle, which was not only expected to be a box office flop but has gotten a lot of criticism from both professional critics and regular viewers. Though it won the weekend, it is hard to really call it a win because of its massive budget. Starting off by only making $1.7 million in Thursday preview showings was a clear sign this movie wouldn’t be going anywhere.

Argylle Wins Another Slow Weekend

Making an estimated $18,000,000 domestically and $35,345,000 worldwide, Argylle came in below initial estimates that had the film making over $20 million domestically alone. With a $200 million budget, Argylle needs to make roughly between $500 and $600 million worldwide in order to break even. The fact that it had a wide international release and is not performing well in those markets either indicates that the film will be another massive theatrical flop for Apple Original Films. Though some money may have been received from Universal as the distributor, these kinds of losses are hard to recover from.

According to the-numbers.com, the top 5 this weekend were:

1. Argylle: $18,000,000 (opening weekend)
2. The Chosen Season 4, Episodes 1-3: $6,035,823 (opening weekend)
3. The Beekeeper: $5,286,616 (21% drop)
4. Wonka: $4,765,000 (16% drop)
5. Migration: $4,110,000 (16% drop)

Wonka Continues to Impress

Even though I predicted that Wonka was likely going to be the family favorite for the Christmas season over a month ago, I do not think anyone would have thought that a prequel to the classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory would end up being one of 2023’s best-performing films. The movie had another strong hold this week and made another appearance in the top 5 highest-grossing films domestically. It would be easy to point to the lack of new content and competition, but the fact remains that Wonka has been punching well above its weight since it first came out. The previous top 2 films, Means Girls (2024) and The Beekeeper, also had strong holds, though as I have previously mentioned, neither is really doing much of anything due to their budgets (or, in the case of The Beekeeper, still not knowing officially what the budget actually is). Mean Girls was officially booted out of the top 5 this week.

The Truth About Aquaman’s Box Office

From time to time, I like to do further analysis of movies that are nearing the end of their theatrical runs, especially if it is a major film from a major studio. Many are looking at the roughly $413,383,301 that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has made at the box office and trying to spin it as some kind of a victory. The fact is that even if you take the most generous and conservative estimate in projected gains or losses, the film is $59,470,019 in the Red right now. However, when you use RCC standards, the outlook becomes even more grim. With a $215 million budget and marketing added onto a likely +$322 million total cost, the film is currently looking at $148,194,184 in financial losses. This is due to the fact that of the money it has made, only $118,783,301 has been made domestically; $236,500,000 has been made internationally (without China), and $57,500,000 was made in China alone. Having large portions of box office revenues coming from international markets and the largest of those being China by a wide margin, the sequel to Aquaman and the end of the DCEU is expected to end well north of $100 million in losses. No matter how one may try to spin the film as doing better than expected, the numbers are clear… it is a massive flop.

If you want more box office numbers and analysis, check out the full chart over at my website. Stay tuned for more box office coverage soon! God bless!

(If you ever want further insight into my methodology, see my previous articles HERE and HERE.)